Gears 5 – 10 Things That are Different from Gears of War 4

Ryan Pitner

Gears 5 comes out on September 10th, 2019 but many really wonder how different is Gears 5 from Gears of War 4? With that being said, we are here to bring you up to speed before Gears 5 launches and let you know about the major difference between the two titles. Let’s dive right in.

10 – Gears 5, Not Gears of War 5

All previous Gears titles have been ‘Gears of War’ with the corresponding number in the series. The new Gears game has dropped the ‘of War’ and will simply be called ‘Gears 5’. They dropped ‘of War’ for marketing purposes, stating that it was a natural evolution of the title. Many people who were familiar with the franchise already referred to the games as Gears. Although a small change, it is not common for a franchise to do this. The title change for the Gears franchise shouldn’t upset too many people, but you never know.

9 – Horde Mode Changes

Horde mode has been a staple in every Gears game since Gears of War 2. It revolutionized wave based PVE, and gave us some of the best co-op experiences ever in gaming. In Gears 5, there will be some changes to the classic horde mode that will all love. We will see the introduction of Heroes, control points and a new way to experience Horde by playing as Jackbot. Every character you can play as has their own unique abilities and play styles.

Heroes have a powerful ultimate ability that can be used after it has charged up. Each character also has set loadouts and passive abilities. The addition of these abilities will help to encourage a coordinated team that plays off of one another. Communicating with teammates on when to activate ultimates could be the difference between surviving and getting cut in half by a lancer.

Gears 5 Horde also will include leveling up your characters by unlocking perks with power and unlocking skill cards. Unlocking perks is done while in a horde match, and does not carry over into other games. To unlock perks, you will need power, the horde mode currency for the fabricator. Unlocking skill cards is based on how well you did in horde, and you are awarded experience once you complete a match. Skill cards do carry over from game to game, but are only available to an individual character.

8 – Map Builder

This one is pretty self explanatory. In Gears 5, you can create your own maps to use in the new mode Escape. You have the freedom to choose corridor layouts, enemy spawns, weapon spawns, and how venom will work while playing your map. After creating your map, you can share it with friends, or open it up to the community to try out and rate.

7 – Performance Capture

All the voice actors in Gears 5 are now also performing with the use of motion capture. A recent trend in movies and even video games has been performance capture. This allows the voice actor of a computer generated character to contribute more than just their voice. For some of the cinematics, the actors movements and facial expressions will be captured and used in-game. Over the past few years, motion capture has improved immensely, and Gears 5 is looking to capitalize on it.

6 – Arcade Mode

Arcade is a new take on Verus in Gears 5, which will hopefully add some variety to matches and keep the player base coming back for more. There are not many details on the mode as of yet, but there has been tech tests and tournaments that have shown some gameplay. In this mode, your team has upgrade points, and allows you to purchase gear that may help in a pinch. You have the choice to pick a weapon in the middle of the game, equip it and use it. Adding this feature will certainly add to some interesting gameplay that will be both incredibly fun and frustrating.

The Coalition also made changes to some gun mechanics since Gears 4. In the past, rifles such as the lancer were under used because the gnasher shotgun was just flat out better. They have adjusted the recoil pattern to encourage more gun variety and thus rewards players with better aiming skills.

5 – Bootcamp

Bootcamp is basically the tutorial and is a way to practice your skills and learn new mechanics before getting into the meat of Gears 5. You’ll play as Del as he helps Damon Baird gather combat data to improve the AI of his DeeBee units. There are different exercises Baird asks you to do. They include learning cover, melee, gun, and movement mechanics all while outside the House of Sovereigns. It is designed to re-familiarize Gears players with how the game works, and introduce it in an easy to learn way for new players to the franchise.

4 – Three Player Co-op

There is in fact 3-player co-op for the campaign, and it’s available on both PC and Xbox One. Players will have the ability to play split-screen with friends while playing the campaign. A downside of 3 player co-op is the third playable character is JACK. That may not be what people want to hear, but it’s been reported that JACK will be playable. Remember, Gears 4 only had two player co-op, and it was supposedly due to storytelling issues and game design issues. The developers said that creating a story that weaves together four characters is a challenge. Keeping four characters together throughout the entire story may not be advantageous for the narrative they are creating. With three player co-op, it is more manageable. In terms of game design, the developers said it made the game too chaotic at times. The more people in the game, the bigger the environments need to be. They didn’t want every area of the game to be massive, because it would take away from the map variety. Hopefully adding JACK as a playable character adds to the experience and is a unique addition to the game.

3 – Main character is Kait, Not JD

In Gears of War 4, the main character was JD Fenix. In marketing and even on the game cover, JD took center stage. The previous Gears game focused a lot on JD, but the real story was about Kait. It was a good call in order to progress the story. JD acted as a natural connection between the new Gears characters and the old characters. Without JD, Marcus’s son, the interaction may not have fallen into place as smoothly. Now that the plot has a solid setup, the focus can shift to Kait.

2 – No More Loot Boxes

Thankfully, Gears 5 will not have loot boxes implemented into its multiplayer. However, it does have an in-game store where players can spend real money on Iron (in-game currency). Iron can be used to purchase cosmetic items such as character and weapon skins. There are also two separate systems for gaining content. One is an unlockable customisation system called Tour of Duty. The other system is called Supply and players get free content just for playing the game. In regards to other monetization means, heroes will be earnable and purchasable, and there will be no season pass for the game.

1 – Available on Game Pass at Launch

Owners of Microsoft’s Game Pass Ultimate will have access to Gears 5 four days earlier than the standard release date. Game Pass Ultimate is currently on sale for $2 for 2 months and gives you access to games on both Xbox and PC. As of right now, Gears of War 4 is on Game Pass, but it wasn’t at launch. Gears of War 4 was released before Game Pass was a service, so the only way to play it at launch was to pay full price for it. With Gears 5, you can play the game for 2 months for $2 if you want to test it out before you throw down $60+ for the game.